J. F. Campbell Collection > Popular rhymes of Scotland

RHYMES UPON NATURAL OBJECTS. 157
WILL O' THE WISP.
A child's rhyme on this object in Ayrshire —
Spunky, Spunky, ye're a jumpin' light.
Ye ne'er tak hame the school weans right ;
But thi'ough the rough moss, and o'er the hag-pen,
Ye dro-vvTi the ill anes in your watery den !
WIND.
In a similar strain of metaphor is their riddle on a high
wind —
Arthur o' Bower has broken his bands,
And he's come roaring OA\Te the lands ;
The king o' Scots, and a' his power,
Canna turn Arthur o' Bower.
MIST.
In an enigmatical couplet on mist, there is the same tui-n
for idealisation —
Banks fou,* braes fou,
Gather ye a' the day, ye'll no gather your neivesf fou.
A STAR.
The metaphorical character and melodiousness of the fol-
lowing never fail to delight children : —
I had a little sister, they called her Peep-Peep,
She waded the waters so deep, deep, deep ;
She climbed up the mountains so high, high, high ;
And, poor little tiling, she had but one eye !
THE MOON.
The following is in a less elegant, but not less fanciful
style. It alludes to the Man in the Moon, who, according
to a half-jesting fiction, founded upon a fact mentioned in
Exodus, is said to have been placed there by way of punish-
ment, for gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. The allu-
sion to Jerusalem pipes is curious : Jerusalem is often
applied, in Scottish popular fiction, to things of a nature
above this world : —
I sat upon my houtie croutie,t
I lookit owi-e my rumple routie,§
And saw John Heezlum Peezlum,
Playing on Jerusalem pipes.
* Full. + Hands. ^ Hams. § The haimck.